Problems of Social Coordination of Independent Authors in the Digitalization of the Music Industry

In the XX century music industry developed a system of music labels - organizations that make contracts with musicians and distribute music content to receive profits. As a result of the development of this system, global music market is characterized by a condition of oligopoly and 70% of the world's music content belongs to 3 record labels. In the context of record labels an industry crisis happened because of decreasing of sales due to piracy and the outflow of musicians who no longer needs to use the label services, since digital programs and media made it possible to cheaply record music: you can create a music track, not leaving home, and with the help of the Internet, it becomes available around the world. Thus, with the proliferation of digital and Internet technologies, the situation in the music industry has changed dramatically - independent musicians have received alternative opportunities to carry out their activities. According to data provided by IFPI in the 2019 report, the global music market grew by 9.7% compared to last year. Sales on digital media, as well as the use of streaming services, are growing every year. Although the supply of musical content and competition in the music market are increasing, the degree of uncertainty in the quality of content associated with the democratization of market entry is also increasing. Today, it is not possible to estimate the number of independent performers and musicians using the data of official statistics in the music industry. At the same time, although musicians call themselves independent, nevertheless, the creation and promotion of a musical product is a collective process in which, as a rule, several actors are involved, each of which performs his task in the production of a musical product. The research question of this study: is it possible to say that musical authors become really independent, or is there actually a process of transition from one production structure (labels, record centers) to another (production network in freelance)? To answer this question, we focus on studying the problem of coordinating the production of musical content in the segment of so-called independent musicians. In this study, the logic of the research's qualitative design was used. 18 semi-structured interviews were conducted with independent authors, which differ in genres and stages of implementation in creating a musical composition. The method of analysis in this paper was the method of analytical comparison. Independent authors can follow various strategies to produce musical content: the formation of a permanent creative team, strategic alliances, participation in a collaboration or the formation of market relations of “sale”. At the same time, independent authors cannot be called completely independent, since they are mainly in production networks. Labels are vertically integrated firms within which the management system is built on a hierarchy of power, while independent authors prefer to enter cooperative and mutual assistance relations with each other, in whose networks professional knowledge flows, and helps to avoid uncertainty and risks when following iterations.